Fabulous made easy

Remember when I reviewed Benefit Playstix and Kat von D Autograph Eyeliner and said I would continue to pay for the good stuff where warranted? A few weeks ago I returned to Sephora, that magical and expensive candy land for girls and fabulous men. This time I had two things in mind. Foundation again, because I was out, and eyeshadow primer. As happy as I was with the quality and application of the Benefit Play Stix, that color issue wasn’t so great. Four shades do very little to accommodate most skin tones, and as Mike pointed out in the car one day, it didn’t accommodate me – at least in daylight. While it looked perfectly fine in the terrible yellow, shadowy lighting of my room, outside my face was half orange. Mmmm…nope.

So the first thing I did, after nearly losing myself at the Kat von D display, was ask the sales girl what was the most similar product in a color that suited me. When I told her the Benefit was orange on me she seemed very confused. She looked at the stick, then back at me in a sort of disbelief. Finally I put it on and she saw how the color looked much different. I also showed her the example of a drug store brand I was carrying which looked very dark in the pot but almost like white-face on my skin. I think she learned something. You really have to try makeup on.

Luckily Sephora lets you do this, and I finally landed on something that looked good, Urban Decay Surreal Skin Foundation. Still not 100% perfect, because you don’t get a whole lot in the pot and the brush isn’t the best, but an improvement nonetheless. I’ll stick with it if it lasts long enough.

As for the primer, I walked around for about 45 minutes with the Kat von D stuff until I noticed Urban Decay Primer Potion in the discount bin, because it was still in the old packaging. I didn’t really know what I was doing anyway, so I grabbed it because it was 2$ cheaper. Good move! I found out later that day that I got the gold one (I thought the gold bottle was just standard, silly me) so it can also be used as a shadow and highlighter. Then I REALLY put the stuff through its paces. I put it on in the morning, went to work, came home, went to bed, got up, went to work AGAIN, and by the end of that second day it still looked way better than just one hour in shadow without any primer, with only minimal fading. Holy shit! And yes, yes I do know that sleeping in your makeup is wrong. I often do it anyway. A tip: Because yellow is the opposite of purple, the gold shade works as a great color corrector for under-eye circles under concealer.

Yesterday at work my mom and I suddenly got on the topic of primer. I don’t think she’d ever even heard of it. She said she never wore eyeshadow anymore because of how badly it creased, smudged, and faded. When I told her about the primer she had to have it, along with a face primer to combat summer melting. So I’m going to pick that up for her on the weekend, and she also wants to take a trip down there with me one of these days to see what other awesome goodies she can find that she never knew existed.

Finally, the Stila eyeshadow in the “It Girl” palette. I got this in the discount bin too, and since I had about 20$ left and that’s what it cost, I bought it. I figured it was a great neutral palette that could be worn natural or smokey, and loved the gold glitter in the deep brown shade and pinky pearlecsense (sp?) of the champagne shade. The palette is gorgeous, highly pigmented, and blends beautifully. It even feels good, it’s so soft! I adore it. Mom wants this too but in a more age-appropriate matte version. Do they have this? I’ll take a look.

So now my eyes look totally pro, for a long time, and my face is no longer orange. I’m going to replace my autograph eyeliner with tattoo liner because I’m forever opening my eyes too soon before it dries and getting horrible black smudges, but beyond this I think I’m about done stocking up on everything I need and can move on to things that are more purely for fun. I wonder what that will be?